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Alias Yearbook 2006
September 2006
Rogue Agent
By Paul Terry
Thanks to Chatty for the scans!
From humble beginnings of being Sydney Bristow's CIA handler, to the revelation of his family being linked to preventing an apocalypse, through it all, Michael Vaughn stayed by Sydney's side. Shortly after wrapping on Alias, MICHAEL VARTAN tells Paul Terry all about his Agent Vaughn memories, plus what it was like filming in Australia for Wolf Creek director Greg McLean's new movie, Rogue...
Before we get to chatting about Alias, you've recently finished the shoot for your new movie Rogue - a tale of a viscious crocodile preying on people in Australia's Outback. How did this project come about?
I can't remember exactly how it happened, but I think there was an actor who was more famous than me - which isn't too hard to imagine [laughs] - which didn't work out for some reason and I was next in line. My agent asked me, "Would you like to go to the Outback and do a giant croc move for four months?" At first I said, "Frankly l'd rather die [laughs]." They said, "Do us a favor. Go and see the director's movie, Wolf Creek," which was this very small independent Australian film, and the director's first film. So to be honest with you, I went with not much anticipation or expectations of seeing anything too great. But it was such a brilliant film - so scary, so effective and so clever. The camera work, and everything about it was just so different to anything l'd seen in a long time. I just thought, "Wow. What an opportunity to be able to work with someone who's so talented." Not to say that I haven't worked with talented people in the past - I've been very fortunate, but movies like Monster In Law, and Never Been Kissed, as fun as they are, they do fall into a format and a category. This was a completely different experience. I spoke to Greg McLean, the director, on the phone after I had seen WoIf Creek. He assured me that the crocodile wasn't going to be this monstrous Hollywood man-eating machine. It was going to be quite a large croc, but very much within the parameters of the size of big crocs they have found in the past. It all went from there. It was the greatest experience l've ever had.
Was it different to shooting in LA?
It's night and day. To compare it with Alias for instance, l've been so lucky to work with some amazing crews, and Alias is a family to me. It's not better, it's not worse, it's just different. On Alias, all of the cast and crew really did become a family very quickly. That's one of the great things about working in this business... when you gel with the crew and the cast.
In Australia, they couldn't care less if you're number one on the call sheet, or if you're the caterer [laughs]. There's just this sense of, "Listen, we're all in this together. We're all making this movie together, and if any of you gets out of line, we're going to make sure we
put you back in line in a heartbeat." I love that. It's a very blue-collar attitude. They're just such a friendly group of people.
l'll bet the weather conditions were different in the Outback...
For the first month and a half, we were in the Northern Territory where it was 52 degrees and we had 98 per cent humidity... it was absolutely the hottest, most intense weather I had ever been a part of. I guess we sort of had a common enemy, so that bonded us very quickly also. We were all looking
out for each other making sure that everybody was drinking enough water and having Gatorade. That was the most intense heat l've ever experienced.
Has this given you a taste to explore nore extreme genres?
I was very lucky to get that job [on Rogue], because it was very different.
It's not so much that I don't want to be a character actor - sure l'd love to play crazy characters, l'd love to shave my head once and get tattoos and play a killer - it's fun. That's part of what acting is... the fun of dressing up and playing pretend. But I don't have an
uncontrollable thirst for exploring my artistic side. If they came to me and said, "We're going to do a spin off of Alias
with Agent Vaughn for six years," if it was good, l'd probably do it. I'm very comfortable not going to extremes too often, although
sometimes it's fun. It's always about the material, and if everything feels right. The one thing I wouldn't do is take on a role that is extreme that I feel like I can't do, just so I can do it. I always have to feel like I would be bringing something positive to the part, otherwise there's certainly someone out there who can do it a lot better.
Do you think Rogue will shock people as much as WoIf Creek did?
[Rogue] is one of those horror films where - well, it's not a horror film, it's definitely more of a thriller, because there isn't that much blood and gore... it's not one of those quote, unquote, Hollywood action movies - nothing that happens is expected. Everything about it is anti-format. That's what I love about it so much. Whether two people see it, or 10 million people see it, people who do will say, "That was a good movie."
Was it a difficult juggling act, shooting this movie in between season five of Alias?
Well, yeah, but it all worked out. I've been so lucky. It sort of fell within Jennifer's maternity and giving birth to the baby, so the crew took about two and a half months off. They tried to keep shooting for a while, and then realized, "Let's just take a long, long Christmas. We'll all come back feeling rejuvenated." So I was given about a month and a half off. So on the heels of the maternity, it all worked out that when I came back, there was about five or six episodes to shoot.
What did you like most about Vaughn's story arc in the final year?
I missed seeing a lot of the episodes being in Australia - in the early to middle part - but the thing I really love about the show is that as always,
just when you think, "Well, there's really nothing they can do anymore," someone in that Writers' Room comes up with a great idea that makes it rejuvenated. I just thought that with so many characters in a show - especially the series finale - they did an amazing job at tying up the loose ends. It's a tough show to put a final exclamation point on. There's so many different ways you could have gone about it, and I just thought they did a really good job.
Any actor will tell you that if you can get two or three years out of a TV show, you're blessed. We got five, so it's been amazing. I think it will always remain the greatest job I ever had just based on the people I got to meet - cast and crew alike. It was an amazing opportunity.
Did you get to work with the new cast members much?
Unfortunately I never worked with Elodie [Bouchez] at all. I worked with Balthazar [Getty] - we had a few scenes
together. He's a great actor and such a nice, nice guy. I worked with Rachel [Nichols] quite a bit. But again, the thing about our show - l don't know what it is, I don't know if it's that crew - there's just a sense of family there. I'd been away for four months doing Rogue, and when I came back, just watching Balthazar and Rachel on the set, it's like the'd been there for five years. The crew loved them, and they were so nice to the crew.
I think people understood very quickly when they came to work with us - and that goes for guest stars too - that we're very lucky to be here. We all like each other, so it's a case of, "No one pull any diva trips, because there's really no time for it and no one cares." I think that's one thing [the new cast members] were surprised by - how close everyone was. Rachel told me once that before she met anyone she'd hoped it would be a fun experience, and within the first three days, she was like, "This is the best experience l've ever had!"
How will you look back and remember how Alias' season developed over the years? Do you have distinctive memories about how the show progressed?
That's interesting. To me it feels more like there was a first half and second half. For the first half, I joked around with Victor and Jennifer all the time. [We recently went] into the office to get something and saw all the headshots on the wall when we all got the parts, and I said, "We all look so young. What the hell happened? It's only been five years [laughs]!" In the beginning, we all realized how lucky we were, got to know each other, and were like, "Wow, the show's actually coming back for a second year! That's cool." For the second half we were all more confident and more aware of the fact that our show had become a success. It went from hoping to come back for a fourth year to us being pretty confident it would come back.
Did you ever get a chance to check out the magazine during shooting?
I did yeah. They'd bring it on set quite a lot, so we'd always make fun of each other. We'd be like, "Great picture Kevin!" Or, "Oh Victor, you don't look crazy in this picture at all [laughs]!" It was fun. It's a cool magazine. We were always like, "Do people actually buy this?" Not because it's Alias, just because we're in it. Other than Jennifer - who's clearly a giant star - Victor, myself, Kevin, Ron, we're not really in magazines, so we were like, "Wow! I'm on every page almost, this is fantastic!"
As this could be the last time you talk about Alias at length, here's a microphone - any final words for the final issue?
You've put a mic in my hand... I've frozen up [laughs]! It's a very good question. The funny thing is that obviously the show's over, I know it's not coming back for another year. But to be honest with you, because of the friendships I made with Jennifer, Victor, Ron, Kevin and Greg, all these guys who I speak to all the time, it almost feels like we're still doing it, but not in front of cameras anymore. They were all such a huge part of what the Alias experience was for me, and getting to speak to them once a week at least, it sort of feels like that whole Alias vibe is still alive. It still feels like the show is around. Before Alias came along, there was no part like Sydney Bristow on TV. Jennifer just knocked that character out of the ballpark and brought so much vulnerability and strength and charisma to it, The thing that's so great about Jennifer is that the minute she appears on screen, she's already won the audience over. The minute she appears on screen, you like her. When I first met her I thought, "Oh, this girl's a little soft isn't she?" Then, cut to the first fight scene and I was like, "OK... just kidding! My bad [laughs]!" I guess that's why I'm not in casting [laughs].
The thing that a lot of people don't know is that we really didn't take ourselves seriously at all. You were there on set, you know - our show was literally one line away from being a sitcom. And we knew that. Did you ever see that spoof we did for ABC with Peter Falk? That could have been our show for five years [laughs]!
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